Privacy Notice

Students and their Parents / Carers

Fred Longworth High School is committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal information. This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about students, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), section 537A of the Education Act 1996 and section 83 of the Children Act 1989.

Who collects this information

Fred Longworth High School is a “data controller.” This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about students.

The categories of student and parent/carer information that we collect, process, hold and share

We may collect, store and use the following categories of personal information about you: –

Images of students engaging in school activities, and images captured by the School’s CCTV system;

Information about the use of our IT, communications and other systems, and other monitoring information.

Collecting this information

Whilst the majority of information you provide to us is mandatory, some of it is provided to us on a voluntary basis. In order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation, we will inform you whether you are required to provide certain student information to us or if you have a choice in this.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your working relationship with us.

How we use your personal information

We hold student data and use it for: –

Student selection (and to confirm the identity of prospective students and their parents);

We need all the categories of information in the list above primarily to allow us to comply with legal obligations. Please note that we may process information without knowledge or consent, where this is require or permitted by law.

Sharing data

We may need to share your data with third parties where it is necessary. There are strict controls on who can see your information. We will not share your data if you have advised us that you do not want it shared unless it’s the only way we can make sure you stay safe and healthy or we are legally required to do so.

We share student information with: –

The Department for Education (DfE) – on a statutory basis under section 3 of The Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013;

Ofsted;

Youth support services – under section 507B of the Education Act 1996, to enable them to provide information regarding training and careers as part of the education or training of 13-19 year olds;

Information will be provided to those agencies securely or anonymised where possible.

The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations, we require them to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

We may transfer your personal information outside the EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

Why we share this information

We do not share information about our students with anyone without consent unless otherwise required by law.

For example, we share students’ data with the DfE on a statutory basis which underpins school funding and educational attainment. To find out more about the data collection requirements placed on us by the DfE please go to https://www.gov.uk/education/data-collection-and-censuses-for-schools.

Storing student data

The school keep information about students on computer systems and sometimes on paper.

Except as required by law, the school only retains information about students for as long as necessary in accordance with timeframes imposed by law and our internal policy.

If you require further information about our retention periods, please contact the Director of Business & Finance at the school who can provide you with a copy of our policy.

Automated decision making

Automated decision making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. We are allowed to use automated decision making in limited circumstances.

Students will not be subject to automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.

Security

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information (i.e. against it being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way).

Youth support services – Students aged 13+

Once our students reach the age of 13, we also pass student information to our local authority and / or provider of youth support services as they have responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13-19 year olds under section 507B of the Education Act 1996.

We must provide the student’s name, the parents’ name(s) and any further information relevant to the support services role.

This enables them to provide services as follows:

Youth support services;

Careers advisers;

Post 16 education and training.

A parent or guardian can request that only their child’s name, address and date of birth is passed to their local authority or provider of youth support services by informing us. This right is transferred to the child / student once he/she reaches the age 16.

The National Pupil Database (NPD)

The NPD is owned and managed by the Department for Education and contains information about pupils in schools in England. It provides invaluable evidence on educational performance to inform independent research, as well as studies commissioned by the Department. It is held in electronic format for statistical purposes. This information is securely collected from a range of sources including schools, local authorities and awarding bodies.

We are required by law, to provide information about our students to the DfE as part of statutory data collections such as the school census and early years’ census. Some of this information is then stored in the NPD. The law that allows this is the Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

The department may share information about our students from the NPD with third parties who promote the education or well-being of children in England by:

Conducting research or analysis;

Producing statistics;

Providing information, advice or guidance.

The Department has robust processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of our data is maintained and there are stringent controls in place regarding access and use of the data. Decisions on whether the DfE releases data to third parties are subject to a strict approval process and based on a detailed assessment of:

Who is requesting the data;

The purpose for which it is required;

The level and sensitivity of data requested;

The arrangements in place to store and handle the data.

To be granted access to student information, organisations must comply with strict terms and conditions covering the confidentiality and handling of the data, security arrangements and retention and use of the data.

Requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, parents and students have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, or be given access to your child’s education record, Director of Business & Finance at the school.

You also have the right to: –

Object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress;

Claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the data protection regulations.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please contact the Director of Business & Finance in writing.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to withdraw consent

In circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact the Director of Business & Finance at the school. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

Contact

If you would like to discuss anything within this privacy notice or have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with the Headteacher in the first instance.

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) to oversee compliance with data protection and this privacy notice. If you have any questions about how we handle your personal information which cannot be resolved by the Headteacher, then you can contact the DPO on the details below: –

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues at https://ico.org.uk/concerns.

Changes to this privacy notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.